Anna Castillo's Interview with a Third Grade Teacher

“You gotta laugh. You have to find the humor in everything from the most mundane in-service to yard duty.” This was the first bit of advice that Caroline (not her real name) shared with me when we sat down to talk about teaching. Caroline has been teaching 3rd-grade in the same rural elementary school for the past 13 years. The school serves about 480 students in grades K-5. The student body is made up of 54% White, 42% Hispanic, 2% Filipino, 1% Native American and 1% African American. The school facility recently completed Phase II of its expansion. This project added nine additional classrooms, a dedicated music room, covered walkways and eating areas, an Art/Science building, and a larger library and computer lab.

This is where her theory on humor has paid off. No sooner were these amazing facilities complete than the budget was slashed and the school lost its music, art and computer teachers. She has seen her classes go from 28 students in the late 1990s, to an average of 18 students since 2001, to 31 students this year. Several colleagues that Caroline had taught with for years were let go because the two-school district had no place for them. Staff morale hit an all time low when the much loved and respected principal of the last 20 years resigned for medical reasons over the summer. To get through Caroline says “I just keep telling myself that now more than ever we have to be here for the kids.”

When asked what it meant to “be here for the kids,” Caroline said, without missing a beat, “Provide them a safe place where they can learn skills to help them become good people. People who can read, write and think clearly. People who care about other people.” Her general philosophy on teaching is to get her students out of the classroom as much as possible to apply what they learn in the classroom to real life situations. Every year her class plants a garden when they study perimeter and area; they write and perform a “punctuation” play for the 1st and 2nd grade classes; they run the annual canned food drive.

This philosophy is reflected in her classroom. Caroline has only “lived” in 2 classrooms; the first was for 3 years when she was just out of university and teaching kindergarten at a Catholic school; the next was the room she now has been in for 13 years. The space is very lived-in with well loved beanbag chairs in the reading corner and a rocking chair for circle time. Caroline laughs when she thinks about this daily morning ritual because it is more like “Amoeba time” with her students contorting themselves into an odd shape so they can all at least be sitting on the floor. The walls are clearly organized to reflect the centers set-up underneath; math, reading, writing, science, social studies, art and “mystery.” She has an aide twice a week for 2 hours who is bilingual and works with small groups.

She tells me that “Sometimes you just have to talk at them. That’s the only way to teach some ideas.” But then she lets them loose to explore these concepts on their own. The class is divided into three groups and she rotates them through the centers and teacher led small groups so she can better understand how they understand the material. The desks are arranged in groups of 5 with one group of 6. The teacher’s desk is at the front of the room where the TV and overhead projector are. On the chalkboard next to a large white board is a daily schedule. Again Caroline laughs “One of these days I’ll get through this whole schedule during the times that I write down.”

Caroline had to adapt her way of teaching when her school became a program improvement school four years ago [meaning they did not meet the standardized test goals set my the No Child Left Behind Act]. Pacing schedules and scripted curriculum cut into a lot of Caroline’s out of class experiences. But she refused to cut them out completely.

When asked what kind of pedagogy she used, Caroline laughed and said “I haven’t heard that word used in the 16 years since I was getting my teaching credential at CSU Northridge!” She then went on to talk about having high expectations of all her students regardless of their status. She tries to pair students based on their personalities as well as their academic levels. She encourages her students to work together, rely on one another and to ask another student first before asking the teacher. Caroline said several times that she believes in the potential of every student.

When asked about what she thought the purpose of public education was she had two answers, one as a parent and the other as a teacher. Mom to two boys (9 and 5 years old) who both attend her school, Caroline feels that public education is supposed to teach her children the skills they will need to succeed in life and to promote their talents. She also said that her boys’ schools should be a place where her kids look forward to going and help keep them excited about learning. As a teacher Caroline said that schools also have a responsibility to help those families that struggle to support their child’s learning at home.

Public education is “sometimes the only hope these kids have and it is our job to help these kids beat the odds.” In her classroom she has worked with her aide to translate forms for parents and to assist at parent teacher conferences. Caroline has started to take Spanish classes in the summer to help her better understand and relate with her students. She also refuses to let anyone use the excuse that because they are English language learners (ELL) that its expected that her students will score lower on tests. “I’m harder on my ELL students, I think. I want to help them prove everyone wrong.” Caroline smirks. She tells me about how she has her students present their work all the time and that buddy reading with the on-site Head Start class has really helped many of her students with their reading and speaking skills.

Caroline laughs again when I ask what keeps her so enthusiastic about teaching. She says “I’m laughing because it’s the kids that keep me going and some days make me want to quit. They drive me nuts but they also keep me coming back for more. They have so much to teach me and they just say and do the most hilarious things.” She has no regrets about her career choices and says you could not pay her enough to become an administrator. Caroline’s only regret about being a teacher? “Not hoarding more supplies at the end of last year!”